The FBI is facing a claim from 12 alleged victims of Jeffrey Epstein over what they say was the agency’s “repeated and continued failures, delays and inaction” that allowed the disgraced financier to run his sex-trafficking operation for more than two decades.
The lawsuit, filed against the United States in the southern district of New York, accuses the FBI of “failing to do the job the American people expected of it and that the FBI’s own rules and regulations required: investigate the reports, tips, and evidence it had of rampant sexual abuse and sex trafficking by Epstein and protect the young women and children who fell victim to him”.
The alleged victims, who appear in court documents as anonymous “Jane Does”, are seeking unspecified damages and calling on the government to unseal FBI documents regarding Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial.
Attorneys for the Jane Does, Jennifer Plotkin and Nathan Werksman, said in a statement to CNN that the lawsuit was a “first step to getting to the bottom of what we have recently learned – that for years the FBI negligently failed to act on clear evidence that Jeffrey Epstein was operating a vast sex abuse operation and sex trafficking ring, as alleged”.
The lawsuit claims that even after the Palm Beach police notified the agency in 2005 that it had received a report that an underage girl was brought to Epstein’s residence for a sexual massage, the FBI failed to open a case until the following year.
It claims that between 1996 and 2005, “the FBI continued to receive direct reports, complaints and tips concerning the illegal sex trafficking of women and underage minors, sex abuse and human rights violations committed by Jeffrey Epstein and associates”.
Evidence that the agency ignored, the lawsuit claims, included “photographs, videos and interviews and hard evidence of child prostitution”.
The lawsuit also claims that an individual told the agency in 1996 that Epstein and his companion Ghislaine Maxwell had sexually abused her and other victims but the agency “hung up” on her and had “failed to act upon and investigate the complaints and tips and failed to comply with protocol and guidelines notwithstanding credible reports of solicitation of child prostitution and sex trafficking”.
It goes on to state that after Epstein pleaded guilty to two state charges of child solicitation in 2006 and was required to register as a sex offender, the FBI continued to receive tips about child sexual abuse. But two years later it closed its investigation, according to the lawsuit.
Then, “from 2009 until 2019, the FBI was complicit in permitting the ongoing sex trafficking of minors, rape and sexual abuse of girls and young women which occurred between New York, Palm Beach and the US Virgin Islands, and many other locations”, the lawsuit said.
Lawsuits against the FBI claiming accountability for crimes that might have been stopped are rare. The Federal Tort Claims Act of 1964 says that people who are injured or damaged by negligence of any federal employee can file a claim for reimbursement of that injury.
Four years ago, a judge ruled the families of Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school massacre victims could sue the FBI for negligence. Before the 2018 shooting, the FBI had received two tips, including one that the shooter posted “I’m going to become a professional school shooter” on YouTube.
“The FBI could have and should have done more to investigate the information it was provided prior to the shooting,” David Bowdich, then acting deputy director of the FBI, said in a statement. “While we will never know if any such investigative activity would have prevented this tragedy, we clearly should have done more.”
The suit was later settled with a $130m payment to resolve 40 cases connected to the claim.
Victims of Larry Nassar, the team doctor of the US women’s national gymnastics team convicted of child molestation, have also brought a lawsuit against the FBI seeking more than $1bn in damages for failing to stop the doctor after it was first notified of allegations against him in 2015.
Approximately 90 claimants including Simone Biles, Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney, all Olympic gold medalists, are involved in the action. “If the FBI had simply done its job, Nassar would have been stopped before he ever had the chance to abuse hundreds of girls, including me,” said the former University of Michigan gymnast Samantha Roy in 2022.
The director of the FBI, Christopher Wray, acknowledged failures by the agency in a Senate hearing. “I am sorry that so many people let you down over and over again, and I am especially sorry that there were people at the FBI who had their own chance to stop this monster back in 2015 and failed, and that is inexcusable,” Wray said.
Under federal law, a government agency has six months to respond to a claim. On Wednesday, the FBI said it does not comment on litigation. The US Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But in Senate testimony last year, Wray was asked why the FBI didn’t do more. He promised to “get with my team and figure out if there is more information we can provide”.
